AI crash: CISF personnel quarantined after passengers test positive for Covid-19

The CISF has directed its personnel to go into preventive quarantine after at least two passengers of the Air India Express flight that crashed in Kozhikode tested positive for Covid-19, officials said Saturday.

The Central Industrial Security Force said it was the "first responder" to rescue passengers as its Assistant Sub-Inspector Ajit Singh was on runway patrol when the flight from Dubai with 190 people on board overshot the table-top runway, fell into a 35-foot valley and broke into two on Friday.

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Eighteen passengers, including the two pilots of the Boeing 737-800 aircraft, were killed in the accident.

"We are identifying our personnel, who rescued the passengers who have tested positive for the coronavirus," CISF Special Director General (Airports) M A Ganapathy told PTI.

Another senior officer said the force has information that two passengers have tested positive for Covid-19.

Around 50 CISF personnel and their family members were involved in the rescue operation and they have been asked to self-quarantine, he said.

The force will also conduct Covid-19 tests of those who were exposed, the officer said. The CISF provides counter-terrorist cover to the Kozhikode airport.

Another official said the rescuers of the National Disaster Response Force and other airport officials have been asked to go into self-quarantine.

ASI Singh, who saw the crash first, immediately alerted his control room, which informed the airport authorities, and rescue teams from CISF, airport authority, fire and police were rushed to the crash site.

CISF chief Rajesh Ranjan announced awarding the Director General (DG) commendation disc to ASIs Ajit Singh, Mangal Singh and airport chief security officer Deputy Commandant Kishor Kumar AV for showing "exemplary alertness and presence of mind by alerting the control Room and guiding the CISF rescue to the site."

The senior officer said about 40 CISF personnel were involved in the rescue operation.

"Reinforcement also responded from the CISF unit lines and helped the personnel who were engaged in rescue operation. Not only the barrack personnel, even those who stay outside the airport campus, rushed to the site on coming to know about the crash, regardless heavy rain," he said.

The CISF was deployed at this airport in January 2002 and has a strength of about 300 personnel, an officer said.